What is Wheat Belly Diet & How it Works?

The Wheat belly diet is moreover like the diets of ancestors, who depend solely on natural foods like fruits and vegetables & not on processed /packaged foods manufactured for sale.

According to a spokes woman for the American Dietetic Association, and a Boston nutritionist, Joan Salge Blake MS, RD, the Wheat Belly Diet is also parallel to an accepted diet called as Paleo or Hunter-gather diet. Let’s see, avoiding wheat-free diet is right for you or not.

can be included. We are free to use herbs, spices, healthy oils like Olive Oil, walnut. Fruits can be consumed occasionally with one or two pieces in a week as the naturally occurring fructose is carbohydrate.

We should try and eliminate all junk foods, fast foods, processed snacks and at the same time drink lots of water. Davis doesn’t advise to eat processed gluten-free products as in these products, the wheat is being substituted by potato starch, brown rice, corn starch, tapioca starch or rice starch. It can raise the blood sugar or glucose more than wheat.

As per Davis, cutting down wheat from our diet will reduce 400 fewer calories a day. Calorie deficit can help to reduce a pound of weight per week. Wheat contains a unique protein, gliadin which increases our appetite and will make our body to need more wheat.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Wheat Belly Diet

As per Davis, we can lose 25-30 pounds over a period of 3 to 6 months depending on gender, age and physical activity provided we stick to the diet.

The diet is very simple. We need not count of calories or fat grams if we eliminate all foods which contain wheat.

Wheat belly diet is rich in fruits and vegetables which in turn contains a lot of vitamins and fiber. A diet which is rich in fruits and vegetables will help lower cholesterol, steady blood sugar, and reduce the inflammation that can cause conditions from acne to arthritis.

Disadvantages of Wheat Belly Diet:

If food such as cookies, bread and pasta are among our favourites, then it will be very difficult to maintain this kind of restricted diet for a long term. As Blake says, losing weight doesn’t have to be this challenging. “No Pain, No Gain”, however do we really need to go such extreme?

We have to read carefully the food labels as most of the packaged food contains wheat.

While maintaining this wheat belly diet, if we cheat and have a slice of whole-wheat toast or half a bagle, then we can suffer from digestive problems like stomach cramps and gas.

While maintaining this diet we are void of taking many important nutrients. Blake says we have to consult a registered dietician so that we meet the needs of all essential nutrients.

When we lose weight, it will be from whole body not from any specific area.

Short Term & Long Term Effects:

We can lose weight swiftly if we attach to the diet strictly as the foods are healthy. Weight loss not only affects our physical appearance but the medical studies found that it can boost our heart health, reduce pain, improve energy levels etc. As this diet plan is new, hence its serious health consequences in the longer run are still to be discovered.

Blake also says, there is nothing wrong with wheat. It’s not just the wheat which is increasing our weight. Weight gain / loss depend on the calories that we take in our diet.

As a part of balanced diet, when we take more fruits and vegetables, we can surely cut down the calories and lose weight, still having the freedom of having wheat / our favourite foods occasionally.